Saturday was my birthday, the big 35. I got a great present from my wife: two nice Erdinger Wheat Beer glasses! It was a total surprise even though I had mentioned a couple of times I wanted some. Later that morning I bought myself a present: a case refill with nearly 20 new beers from the local Getränke Abholmarkt down the street. $20 for 20 new beers (14 Eurodollars).
We went to what is becoming our favorite Doner place for lunch and I had an Alpirsbacher Wheat. After a kindergarten open house, we toured Bad Canstatt, a suburb of Stuttgart with nice old city feel (small shops, close streets, cafes). Then we found the mall and I had a couple Schonbruck Wheats while the kids slept and Andi shopped. They really should serve beer in the food court at the malls in the USA.
That afternoon we hit the Biergarten. All total, 3 L of beer, quite a Bday! We played frisbee and soccer in the nice big park. I am surprised it took us so long to find the park (and biergarten). BTW, beer really is cheaper than coke over here. At the mall, 3.2 Eurodollars for .5 L beer while coke is 2.8 Eurodollar for .4 L (no ice).
This brings me to the silly metric system. I like English unit for volume. Drinking a gallon of beers is a decent accomplishment. Here, you have a liter. Nobody seems to use mils or centi-liters, it is 0.2 or 0.3 or 0.5 liters, decimals! More confusing. A shot is about an ounce, a glass of wine is about a cup, a glass of beer is about a pint, a quart is a good amount of whiskey (but usually we use a 750 ml fifth). English just feels better to me.
Today we went to Bad Wimpfen for Talmarkt, a festival that has run for 1043 years! Just like a big fair back home with rides. Instead of polish sausage, they sell wurst. Instead of country music, they have german polka bands. But they do sell a lot more beer here (compared to the SC sate fair). We finished that out early and went to Heilbronn, a nice little town with walking paths along the river. Finally, we came home to the big festival since Germany plays Spain for the Eurocup. We hit the biergarten for the fourth time this week (no beer, just WC today) and played inthe park. Then we pushed the stroller with two kids through a crowd of maybe 100,000 people gathered in the main city center to watch the game on big TVs. It was a bit crazy, with broken glass everywhere. You would think they would sell beer at festivals in paper cups or at least have lots of trashcans. The smartest thing I saw: they lined up port-a-toilets around the nice fountains in the square so drunks could not get to the fountains easily. So Germany is losing right now, maybe they can pull it off...
UPDATE: Germany loses an "exciting" 1-0 game. Waiting for the honking... Waiting... Waiting... Some fireworks in the distance... Waiting... There it is, just one car! Not much espania in the house?
